


Today is Today

by K_K_TiBal, whelvenwings



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Canon Compliant, Castiel in the Bunker, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Salt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-17 01:12:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14177346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_K_TiBal/pseuds/K_K_TiBal, https://archiveofourown.org/users/whelvenwings/pseuds/whelvenwings
Summary: In which we take some time to really explore conflict in Dean and Castiel's relationship.





	Today is Today

"I can't believe you would accuse me of lying to you, Dean. After everything we've been through... I bled for you. I killed for you. I would reach into the heart of a star and crush the light out of it, just to stop you from getting a sunburn. Because I know you have a peachy complexion. This, and more, I would do for you. And now you accuse me of lying to you? Dean... I've never felt so betrayed. My anger is the point at the tip of a knife, cutting into me with vicious accuracy. My knees, cut. My heart, cut in a major way. My left elbow, actually fine right now. But these wounds will never heal, Dean."

"But Cas," Dean said, "I know you are wrong."

"They will never... ever... heal, Dean."

He turned his face to the wall. When Dean said nothing, he felt awkward so he left.

But as he walked away dramatically, Dean murmured loudly,

"You are absolutely wrong though. Nothing you say... can change that."

Castiel slowly turned back around like an object moving slowly and squinted at Dean like a person that couldn't see very well. 

"What did you say?" he said, his voice low like a low sound. 

Dean snapped his mouth shut and glared back, trying to decide if this was something that he wanted to fight about.

And it was.

He did want to fight about it.

Dean unsnapped his mouth. 

"I said, you're  _ wrong,  _ Cas." Dean folded his arms in front of him like a folded paper, and stood his ground like a person standing his ground. "I know that you would do all of those things for me. And that's awesome and attractive. But you've lied before and I know that you'll lie again. But also you may have just forgotten and I realize that sometimes I'm easy to forget about but not this time. This is unacceptable and I need you to realize that."

He shifted uncomfortably - like a shapeshifter - but not at all like a shapeshifter because he didn't shift his actual shape.

Castiel grabbed Dean.

"Get off my ear," said Dean, "please."

Castiel grabbed Dean again.

"That is for later," Dean said.

Castiel grabbed Dean a third time and this time he chose the shoulder and that was OK.

"LISTEN," he said. "You are NOT easy to forget about and I would never do it except for the times that I have done it. But I am right. I know I am right. I am an angel and I have celestial powers of most holy and magnificent always-rightness and you don't have those but I want you to feel that you are special in your own way."

"We need to research if it is you or me who is right," said Dean.

Castiel nodded once and let go of Dean's shoulder. 

"Aw," said Dean, sad. 

"You are right." Castiel said. 

"See!" Dean ejaculated. 

"Not about that. And the way you said that is gross. But we should do some research and ask Sam if he remembers which of us is right."

Dean hummed and decided that it was a good idea. 

"Okay. We should go ask Sam because if we don't include him in the story, that means we hate him and we don't want people to think we hate Sam."

Castiel smiled and stared into space for a second. 

"Yes. I love Sam. I love  _ all _ of Sam."

"We didn't tag this for Sastiel," said Dean, "so please keep those thoughts to yourself for now. SAM."

Sam had just appeared in the doorway.

"Agree with me about something," said Dean.

"No," said Sam.

Ah, siblings.

"That is conclusive evidence," said Castiel. "That I am right."

"No it is not conclusive," said Dean.

"It is pretty conclusive," said Sam.

"You are wrong. You are all wrong. I would die for you! But you are wrong." Dean was very sure about this.

"We need more evidence," said Cas.

"What is this even about?" wondered Sam to himself, as the two of them left the room arm in arm. “Why are we here? What is the point of all this? Does this even make any sense? Do I hear the call of the void? Am I losing my mind, are we all losing our minds, is this how it ends?”

While Sam had an existential crisis, Dean and Castiel stopped in front of a doorway down the hall and knocked on it. 

"Charlie? Are you in there?" 

"Yes," said Charlie's voice. 

"What are you doing?"

"Taking a bath."

Dean looked at Cas, panicked. Charlie and baths did not mix well.

"Just a normal bath?"

"A normal bath. Don't worry, I can climb through this window if anything goes wrong with my bath."

Dean nodded to himself. That sounded fine. 

"Castiel and I need to decide who is right about something. Can you help?"

"Castiel is right."

"Hey!" Dean frowned at the door with frown. "You don't even know what it's about! This is very important!"

"I'm a lesbian," said Charlie. "Lesbians are always right. If there were someone writing this right now and she were also a lesbian then she would also always be right and probably everyone should agree with her about stuff all the time including about that thing we argued about last week, MICHAELA."

(authors note: wtf em!!)

(author’s note: this is not the place for this discussion michaela.)

Then Dean and Cas went to the library.

In the library they looked in books to see who might be right.

"I can't find an answer Dean," said Castiel. "I can't go on."

Dean slammed his hand down on the table.

"You  _ have _ to Cas. You  _ have _ to go on!"

Dean reached up and cradled Castiel's face in his hands, a single non-gendered tear running down his face. 

"Please, Cas." 

Castiel looked back and Dean like he was confused, but not too confused and he just kind of liked the touch so didn't want to tell Dean he was being weird. 

They stared at each other like there was no one else in the room.

"Sam is in the room." Sam announced, clearing his throat loudly. "So get this: I think I have an answer to all of your problems because this is what I do and you'd all be dead without me."

"This is absolutely true," Dean said angrily.

"Acceptable content," agreed Castiel furiously. "Very on-brand."

"If you truly wish to know who is right. Who is right, and who is left - aha - just a little joke for you there."

Sam was moving past his existential despair with bad jokes.

"If you don't take this seriously," said Dean, "then I will do something mean but appropriate for a fic rated G."

"What you must do!" said Sam. "Is simply travel to an alternate universe and ask your alternate selves who is right! That will settle this once and for all!"

"Of course!" Dean smacked himself on the head and then smacked Castiel on the head. Physical comedy. "Cas, can you do that?"

Castiel shook his head sadly.

"Not in this episode. I probably can next time, though." 

So they waited for the next episode.

"Okay, now I can." Castiel held his hands up as his eyes began to glow angelically. "Oh yes, this is a good write this time." 

He booped Dean on the head and they instantly traveled into an alternate universe where everything was the same, but it smelled a little bit more like vanilla than usual. 

"Ah the vanilla ‘verse. I like this one." Castiel said seriously, smelling a little bit more like vanilla than usual. They decided to go and find their alternate-universe selves.

"Vanilla Dean and Castiel!" said Dean loudly, bursting through the door of Dean's room in the bunker, but vanilla Dean and Castiel were busy doing wholesome things to each other in the bedroom and Dean decided to leave them to it. We rated this G so they were probably just touching the tips of their 

fingers together.

"Try a different universe!" he said.

"You can be so bossy," said Castiel. "I kind of... like it."

Vanilla Sam, smelling strongly of vanilla, put his arms around each of their shoulders. "Not in this universe, you don't," he said, in a voice like a thousand bees.

Awkward. They moved on quickly after that.

The second universe Castiel brought them to was confusing. There seemed to be no one around but two lettuces, a purple and a green one, rolling across a road from one side to the other. Dean and Castiel watched them go.

"Why did the lettuce cross the road," said Dean.

The third one Cas brought them to felt pretty normal. Not all that different from the one Dean and Cas had come from. 

Wrong.

You will find out later. 

"Hello?" Dean yelled out into the bunker. "Anyone here?"

"I am," murmured Cass from over by a chair.

Dean gassped and jumped behind Cas, ussing him ass a sshield.

“Heh. Ass,” said Cass threateningly.

"H-hiss name." Dean hissssed. "Why doess it have two "S's" in it? You only have one "S" in your name."

Cas brandisshed hiss angel blade in front of him.

"Thiss iss a monsstrossity." 

The fourth universe Castiel brought them to was called Harold.

The fifth universe Cas brought them to was so similar to their own that they both were extremely excited. They held hands and didn't even stop after 0.2 seconds because this was definitely not the universe in which TV writers were cowards #stickittotheman #twentygayteen.

This universe was their own universe, except twelve hours behind.

"But wait," Dean said, the colour draining from his face. "This... this is when it happened."

Castiel took a deep breath, but not as deep of a breath as the time he ate the souls. 

"It's okay Dean. I want you to know..."

"Yes, Cas?" Dean said, lovingly, like a man in love. 

"That I will still love you. Even when we find out I'm right. I'll still love  _ all  _ of you."

Dean frowned. 

"You're wrong, but this is tagged for Destiel so that sentence was okay."

Dean grabbed Castiel by his hand and led him to the place where....  _ it _ happened. 

The kitchen. 

There was a sponge.

The sponge was wet, and covered with the detritus of past deliciousness. Soaked through with rich, warm, bubbly water, it nestled in the palm of a tall, athletic white man with broad shoulders, strong arms, and features that were extremely pleasing to the eye.

"That could honestly be either of us," said Dean.

"There has never been a diversity problem in Supernatural's casting," Castiel said, his eyes lit from within as though by the rigorous denial of a hundred thousand executive producers.

The man with the sponge turned around. This was it: the moment they'd been waiting for. The moment the answer would be revealed. The TRUTH.

The face was blurry and they squinted really hard to see. 

No answer appeared.

They squinted harder.

They just couldn’t see.

Anything?

Nothing.

This is really getting drawn out.

“Why are we here,” Sam wept from outside. The jokes hadn’t helped him very much.

Still no resolution.

It was almost as if two writers had been taking it in turns to write passages of this fic, and suddenly the pressure of deciding the ending was all placed on the shoulders of one of the two writers, without that writer being warned beforehand that they would have to decide the outcome of the ENTIRE fic. A serious task.

Or, as they would say in alternate universe number 3, a sseriouss tassk.

"Which of us is it?" Cas asked, trying to make out the answer. 

"I don't know," said Dean, trying to make out with Cas. 

"Sam is in the room again." Sam announced and stood with his hands on his hips. "You can't see the answer because the answer doesn't matter. Yesterday is yesterday. Today is today." 

Sam held out a sponge. 

"I don’t care who did it last,  _ someone _ needs to do the f@%$^# dishes."

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, is today April Fool's Day? We didn't even know.
> 
> Tag yourselves, Mich (K_K_TiBal) is "I can't find an answer" and Em (whelvenwings) is "He did want to fight about it"


End file.
